


Collector's Edition

by ChronoXtreme



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: A wee bit of angst but it's mainly backstory, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Dimitri is soft for his beloved TA, Disability, EYEPATCH FEVER, F/M, Fluff, Happy April Fool's!, Just Silly Fun, Student Dimitri, TA Byleth, and mutual pining, photoshoot, sorta crack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-03-01 04:55:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,995
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23439559
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChronoXtreme/pseuds/ChronoXtreme
Summary: You collect eyepatches?" She held up one that was holographic. "You don’t wear these, right?”“Goodness no,” Dimitri replied quickly. “No, I just collect them.”“You should try them on,” Byleth suggested. “You know, just for fun.”Dimitri blinked. “You mean… right now?”“Sure, why not?” She smiled. “We’re taking a break. Might as well have fun with it.”
Relationships: Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd/My Unit | Byleth
Comments: 8
Kudos: 124





	Collector's Edition

Dimitri’s apartment was simple yet elegant, like the man himself. Well, at least the parts he owned, that is.

Byleth had been here several times already to help him with his History 201 classes. In her opinion he didn’t really need the help anymore — she could see his grades as the TA for that class — but he was nice to be around and always paid her in free dinners so it was a pretty damn good deal. Sometimes his roommates teased him about them getting up to other stuff besides studying, but the only reason she’d ever entered his room was to sit at his desk and read him the class slides at the back of the book. 

Which was what she was doing now. His desk chair was pretty comfy, and she propped her laptop up against her knees with her feet on the seat as she watched him jot down notes in his notebook — Dimitri was about as adverse to technology as her grandmother, bless her soul. 

“You doing okay?” she asked, watching in concern as he rubbed at his forehead, messing with the black eyepatch that covered his right eye. He’d never told her how he’d damaged it — he hadn’t needed to. Everyone knew about the massive fire that had reduced the Blaiddyd family mansion in Fhirdiad to rubble. Dedue, one of Dimitri’s calmer roommates, had explained that a burning piece of debris had struck him in the eye. He wasn’t fully blind in the eye, but it apparently messed with his vision.

Which was why Dimitri asked for her help. Due to the one eye, he sometimes couldn’t focus on the projector screen in the lecture halls, which meant that he couldn’t take notes off them. And since the professor tested on the slides as well as the lecture, that posed a problem.

Which was where she came in, noticing him with his head in his hands after the bell rang for dismissal. After politely asking if he was all right and if he needed some aspirin (she always carried some in her bag in case of cramps) and after he’d deflected her question in a thousand possible ways, he admitted that he needed help with the lecture slides and could Byleth send him them in an email. When she realized that his eye was the problem, she’d offered to just dictate them to him instead. Since he was so technologically unsavvy, sending him audio files wasn’t the best idea, so she offered to just meet up with him and read him the lecture slides in person.

Which led to him inviting her over for dinner as payment for her time, which led to her being in his apartment at least twice a week, which led to the teasing by his roommates, which was probably the reason for his headache right now. 

“I’m fine,” he said with a sigh, leaning back against the wall, sprawled out on his bed like a humongous rag doll. “I just have a Finance midterm this week, and I’m not looking forward to it at all.”

“Sleeping okay?” she asked, noticing the bags — well,  _ bag _ — underneath his eye. 

“Sylvain’s been at it again,” Dimitri explained, and she grunted. “I’ve asked him to keep it down, but…”

“He’s a dick sometimes,” Byleth filled in. 

It was a testament to how tired he was that Dimitri’s only response was a weary, “Yeah.”

She eased her laptop shut, then put it in her bag. “Then we’re taking a break.”

“But—”

“We’re almost done with the slides anyway. We can start up again in fifteen minutes.” Byleth smiled as he promptly collapsed on the bed. “Sure you don’t want aspirin?”

“It won’t help,” he groaned, his voice muffled by the bedding, and she stifled a giggle.

Rotating the chair — it was one of those fun office ones that could spin around — she faced his desk, looking at the different photos and paraphernalia on the wall. Most of them were photos of him and his roommates at stuff like concerts and at restaurants, though she did spy a photo with a young boy and two solemn adults. Most likely his family before the fire. A small part of her whispered that she was invading his privacy, but she’d been in his room dozens of times at this point. She felt… comfortable here. At home. 

Which was why when she noticed the large box at the side of his desk that looked like a treasure chest straight out of a pirate movie, she creaked it open with one toe.

“Oh, whoops.” Carefully she let the lid ease shut. She’d thought it would be locked.

“It’s okay,” Dimitri said, though when she spun the chair around he was blushing, his blonde hair haphazardly falling into his eye. “It’s, er… just some dumb stuff.”

“Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd, owning ‘dumb stuff’?” She grinned. “That where you keep your weed stash?”

“No!” He shook his head furiously. “Nothing like that!”

“Didn’t take you for a porn mag guy.”

“Not that either!” With a huff, he combed his hair back with one hand and got up from the bed, picking up the chest easily despite it being the size of a large microwave. “It’s my collection.”

Byleth raised an eyebrow. “Like what, stamps?”

“No.” With a sigh he eased back down onto the bed, then opened the chest. “It started out as a joke birthday present,” he explained, his cheeks still pink — she felt a little bad for teasing him, but she wanted to know just what the hell Dimitri was keeping in a fancy chest. “Sylvain thought it would be funny, and well… it sort of snowballed from there.” When he cracked open the chest, she actually stared wide-eyed.

Eyepatches. Tons of eyepatches, carefully arranged, with little rotating shelves and all, like a watch drawer or something. 

“You collect eyepatches?” she asked, looking up at him incredulously. It didn’t really seem Dimitri’s style — not to mention he only wore just the plain black one every single day. 

“Like I said, it was a joke birthday present. Sylvain gets me a few every year. But sometimes, I…” He blushed again, and she had to admit, he looked pretty cute when he was flustered like this. “I buy them myself when I see them online.”

“Nothing wrong with that,” she said with a shrug of her shoulders. “It’s cool.”

“You really think so?” he asked, his eye wide. 

“Yeah. I mean, it sure as hell beats a stamp collection. And…” She paused, smiling at the neat little rows. “I think it’s cool that you don’t let your eye get you down. Most people would be mad that they have to wear an eyepatch in the first place. But you’re taking it in stride.” She smiled as she looked at him. “That’s pretty cool.” 

“I-I mean, it’s not… I wouldn’t go that far,” Dimitri stammered, and she chuckled as he ran his hand through his hair again. Idly she rotated the little shelves, then laughed again as she saw more of the collection. 

“Some of these are pretty weird, not gonna lie,” she said, holding up an eyepatch that was holographic. “You don’t wear these, right?”

“Goodness no,” Dimitri replied quickly. “No, I just collect them.”

“You should try them on,” Byleth suggested. “You know, just for fun.”

Dimitri blinked. “You mean… right now?”

“Sure, why not?” She smiled. “We’re taking a break. Might as well have fun with it.” When he didn’t respond, she gently placed the eyepatch back. “Unless you’re uncomfortable with it.”

“No, it’s fine! More than fine!” He shook his head so hard that hair whipped around his face. “I just didn’t exactly expect this to happen, is all.” Her eyes widened as he started to undo the laces of his eyepatch. She didn’t exactly expect him to just go with her silly idea.

“Do you want me to, uh…” She motioned turning around, but he shook his head. 

“It’s fine. I trust you.” He smiled gently. “You’ve helped me stay passing in this class after all.”

“Dimitri, you have a 96.8% grade in this class,” Byleth deadpanned. “You would be passing just fine without my help.”

“Then, I suppose…” He blushed again, but this time Byleth didn’t feel amused. Her own face felt a little warm. “I suppose it’s because I enjoy your company.” Before she could ask what  _ that _ meant, he coughed a bit. “Just be warned. It’s not very pretty.” When he pulled the eyepatch away, she cautiously met both of his eyes.

In a way, he was right: the eyelid sagged in a weird way, the skin discolored from a burn scar. But the eye itself… Well, she wouldn’t go so far as to call it beautiful. It was damaged after all, and caused him pain. But the milky pupil and the way it contrasted his icy blue iris… It was a fascinating combination. “Sorry,” she mumbled, turning back to the chest. “I shouldn’t stare.”

“It’s all right.” She could hear his smile in his voice. “You can pick the eyepatch, if you’d like.”

“Okay.” She rotated a few shelves until she found one: black lace stretched over red satin. “Here,” she said, passing it to him. When he tied up the laces in the back, she nearly laughed. “You look like you’re wearing half a bra on your face,” she said, grinning as she pulled out her phone. “Do a pose for me.” 

“What pose?” he asked.

“I dunno. You’re wearing half a bra, do a sexy pose or something.”

To her surprise, instead of blushing or stammering Dimitri laid down on the bed and looked up at her with hooded eyes, hands beneath his chin. She laughed, snapping a few pics with her camera app. “I’ll send these to you,” she promised, looking through the burst photos she took. “You could be a model, you know,” she joked. “An eyepatch model.”

He actually laughed, kneeling on the bed once more. She sat down next to him, rotating the shelves. “See any you like?” she asked, looking down at him. He picked out one: a weird leather patch with silver spikes jutting out. “Do you go to punk goth concerts?” she asked incredulously as he swapped it out from the bra patch. 

“No, this was actually Felix’s choice,” Dimitri explained, fastening it in place. “He says it suits my ‘brooding phases’ whatever that means.”

“Felix needs to do some introspection if he thinks you’re the brooding one,” she muttered. “Here, lean against the wall and pout like one of those boy band covers.” Dimitri chuckled but did as ordered, folding his arms and giving her a mighty pout. “Nice.” She took a few more pictures, then paused. “You don’t happen to have a leather jacket, do you?” While it was a pretty good photo, his short sleeved v-neck didn’t exactly scream “emo.”

“Oh, I…” He got up from the bed, moving over to the closet on the other side of the room. “I may have something in here…” Rummaging through the clothes hanging up, he made a small “ah!” noise. “Will this work?” he asked, pulling on a black leather jacket.

“Perfect. Okay, same pose.” The next few pictures came out great, and Dimitri laughed as she showed them to him on her phone. “Wanna try another?” she asked, gesturing to the chest.

“Your turn to pick,” he said, taking off the spiky patch.

What followed was easily the silliest photo shoot of Byleth’s life. She half expected Dimitri to stop her at any moment but he seemed to be having just as much fun as she was, swapping out eyepatch for eyepatch and doing model poses. When Dimitri mentioned that Sylvain had a holo jacket to match the patch she’d picked out earlier, she snuck into his room to retrieve it. He had patches with zigzags, patches with camo print, patches with so many beads that Dimitri had to hold it up so it didn’t fall off his face. One patch looked like it was solid gold with little gold chains to hold it up; Dimitri wouldn’t give her a straight answer about how much it cost, though he confessed that it was “more than I should have spent.” 

Which was basically billionaire code for a fuckton of money.

When they got to the fall festival section (Dimitri pointed out the labeling system he had when Byleth discovered a row of identical eyepatches but just in different shades of blue) she laughed as she saw a patch styled to look like a spider was on his face. Dimitri pretended to convulse in horror at the spider “eating” his eye — they were both laughing so hard she was certain all the pictures she took were blurry. 

“Hello there.” A patch styled to look like a dragon eye stared up at her with its fake glassy iris. When Byleth held it up to his face Dimitri smiled. 

“ You should try it on,” he suggested.

“You sure? These are all yours.”

“Of course. Here.” He patted the space on the bed in front of him and Byleth sat down. “May I?” he asked, taking the patch from her. 

“Sure.” His fingertips felt rough against her skin, but he was as gentle as could be when he took the patch from her, pressing it against her face. When he motioned for her to hold it, his fingers moved to the straps, tying it neatly — she was impressed he didn’t get any hairs stuck in the knot. 

“There,” he murmured, and she felt a little tingle as his warm breath misted on her neck. “Is it too tight?”

“No.” She turned around, then froze as he realized that they were practically nose to nose, his blue eye so close to her own. Dimitri didn’t pull away, like she thought he would, though that blush was back on her cheek. When he smiled, she felt something strange in her chest. Almost like someone had lit a candle inside.

“It looks good on you,” he said, his voice softer than before. She swallowed; even though he was wearing a ridiculous peacock feather eyepatch, he looked… well, not cute. Attractive, certainly. Handsome, definitely. But she was his TA for the semester. Couldn’t exactly think such things about one of the students she was responsible for. 

That didn’t make the warmth in her chest, spreading up to her cheeks, go away.

“Thanks,” she whispered. 

“Here. Hold still.” She watched as Dimitri fished his phone out of his pocket — the case was so big and bulky that it looked like he was holding a brick. She flinched as the flash went off. “Oh, I’m so sorry!” He nearly dropped the phone as he reached for her face, then snatched his hand back. “Are you all right? I didn’t mean to—”

“I’m okay,” she reassured him, though she had to blink a few times, floaters in her vision. “Even if you got my eye, the other one’s still protected.” She tapped the dragon’s eye. “See?”

He paused, then chuckled. “I suppose that’s true.” Looking at the chest, he moved a few shelves. “Do you want to try on a few more?”

“We should probably get back to covering those slides,” she admitted. Carefully untying the eyepatch, she put it back on its spot. “But thanks for indulging me.”

“I should thank you,” Dimitri said softly. “This… was probably the most fun I’ve had in a long time.” 

Byleth was about to make a joke about how he really needed to get out more, but when she saw the way he looked at her, the words died in her mouth. “Me too,” she confessed. 

Dimitri shuffled to the head of the bed, replaced the peacock eyepatch with his regular black leather one, then closed the chest and took out his notes. Byleth took her spot on his office chair as she pulled out her laptop. “Okay, we were on the final phase of the Adrestrian-Faerghan war, Loog’s initial assault,” she said, leaning back in the chair. “Dates you need to remember are 22 Red Wolf Moon, 750 IY…”

When they finished, Byleth packed up her stuff. 

“You aren’t going to stay for dinner? Dedue’s making some more five pepper soup,” Dimitri said, sitting up straight on the bed. 

“Nah, I have a TA meeting in… That I’m actually late for,” Byleth noted, checking her watch. “Sorry, Dimitri. Maybe next time?”

“Of course.” He paused. “And maybe next time…” He blushed again — she was really starting to like that look on him — shaking his head. “No, I’m sorry, I shouldn’t ask.”

“What?” She smiled at him. “Don’t leave me hanging like that.”

“It would be fun to… play around with my collection again,” he said, giving her a bashful look.

“Oh. Sure thing,” she said. “I think we only covered like half of it.” He really had a lot of eyepatches. 

“And maybe next time… you could model?” He looked like a young orphan boy begging for sweets. “Not all of them! Just a few, like—”

“Sounds like a plan.”

That smile of his did way too many funny things to her heart, but it was worth it. She’d never seen him so happy, not even with his friends. Maybe he…

_ Nope. Don’t even think about it. _

“I really gotta go,” she said, slinging her backpack on her shoulder. “Thursday, same time?”

“Mmhm.” He got up and saw her out, even though she knew the way out of his building. Yet when he opened the door to the street, instead of shaking her hand like they always did, he wrapped his arms around her, backpack and motorcycle helmet and all. “Thank you,” he breathed. She knew he wasn't thanking her for the tutoring.

“No problem,” she whispered back. 

When Professor Seteth reprimanded her for being late, she didn’t even feel bad. She could still hear Dimitri’s laughter echo in her ears.

**Author's Note:**

> Okay, I thought that the Smash fic I wrote would be the silliest thing I'd do, but then someone in one of my discord channels mentioned Dimitri having an eyepatch collection and this was born.
> 
> Enjoy, and happy April Fool's!


End file.
